Monday, March 2, 2009

Broken Glass Jello

Ever since I made the 5-layer Jello for Valentine's Day, I've been craving Jello. Recently, my friend gave me great notecards from JustJennDesign. You have to check out her site! Such awesome stuff and she somehow manages to also write very funny blogs!

On her site, she has a recipe for Broken Glass Jello. I've seen variations of this in Mexican grocery stores and eateries, but haven't seen one with such vibrant colors. I had to make this...and you should too!!! So easy, so little labor, and so much fun to eat. Sure, it doesn't require the usual KitchenAid mixer, imported sea salt, 72% cocoa chocolate or Tahitian vanilla beans...but sometimes, we need something simple! :) And I think kids would love this!

4 small boxes (3 oz. each) of Jell-O or store brand "gelatin dessert" in different colors. (I used strawberry, lime, orange and blue. My store only sells the big 6 oz. box of blue jello so I weighed 3 oz. or half of the package).

1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk (don't get evaporated milk)

2 envelopes unflavored gelatin (that Knox stuff)

For each flavor, dissolve one box of jello in one cup of boiling water. Pour into a container and chill (overnight is probably best, but I chilled it 3 hours until firm). I just love these retro Tupperware containers I picked up at a garage sale!

Please note: Only add 1 cup of water to each box of colored Jello. Ignore the instructions on the box of Jello (they say to use 2 cups of water). Use only 1 cup of water so the Jello is firm and can be cut into blocks.

What a creative looking dessert! I'm not usually a huge jello person, but I would soooo whip out the jello for this treat. It looks great, and I'm betting with all that sweetened condensed milk that it taste great, too!

I love your new and clean layout. The last one was really hard for me to read so I rarely commented because I just viewed on my reader.

This recipe looks awesome. I'm going to try and make it this week. My son will love it. Do you have any idea how long this can stay outside of the fridge for? I'm thinking of making this for his birthday but if it can't stay out for long than it won't work.

Damaris, Thanks for your comments. I usually don't keep Jello out for more than a few hours indoors, so outside would be even less. Perhaps you could put it out on a tray on ice, or divide them into small trays and keep some in the refrig until you need to refresh? Depending on the weather, I would hate for you to have jello soup!

Gorgeous dessert! Gorgeous photography! I posted a link to your site (and JustJenn's) today for my edible crafts blog at craftgossip.com. You can see the post at ediblecrafts.craftgossip.com. thanks for sharing! meaghan

At first I didn't think I had ever seen such a thing, then you mentioned seeing them in mexican bakeries. Aha! I have seen them before, but they sure as heck didn't look like this! Yours are beautiful and if I Jello in my pantry now, I'd go make them.

What exactly is "blue" flavor, by the way?

I do have a question for you though. Please email you if you can. I had a hard time getting the Knox Blox out of the pyrex dish when I made them for Valentine's day. About half of them broke :-( Did you have any difficulty getting your out of the pan in clean squares? Did you spray the pan with anything or line with parchment? If you have any tips for me, I'd appreciate them. Myhusband is a huge fan of gelatin so I want to make this asap :-)

OMG OMG OMG! I loooooove colorful stuff, and your pictures are literally making me squeal. I AM SO BOOKMARKING THIS ENTRY! You'll see this on my blog soon enough, probably in the summer, and you will get MAJOR accolades from muah!

Awesome. I made you red and white striped jell-o for V-day, now I'm going to have to do t his--Easter sounds good. I didn't even know that one of my friends LOVES Jell-o and made her first comment on my blog when I did the red/white. She'll flip over this! ;) Great job!

I am known as the Jello Queen. I am going to try this with the red adn blue jellos for the 4th of July! I have made other white layers but never with sweetened condensed milk. At least it will be sweet!!!

This is so gorgeous!I make "jewel Easter eggs" by pouring Jell-O in several colors and pieces of fruit inside empty eggshells that have been washed out. I will try to make the condensed milk 'eggs' with the Jell-O 'jewels' next time...Thank you!

I've never seen this before, and it looks so unique! I am totally going to make it for my daughters first birthday party, along with her ducky cake of course. I have a feeling this will be a much bigger hit than ordinary jello!

I have never seen this before and it looks so unique! Thanks for passing it on. I am for sure going to make this for my daughters first birthday party (along with her ducky cake, of course) and I have a feeling it will be a much bigger hit than regular jello! So excited to try it out!

Hi Mary, My mom has those "retro Tupperware containers" and so do I. Those ones actually stack together and are held together by this plastic handle like thing. Great for packing and toting food to picnics or for bentos. I luv Tupperware products. I used to buy tons and tons of them from a Tupperware consultant until I found that I can get them at garage sales for a fraction of the price ... Bye the way, I luv your blog. ... TNA

Mary ... I got side-tracked about the Tupperware. .... I wanted to say that the first photo of the cut up Jello in the pyrex dish is very pretty. I luv the colors. Looks so festive that I'm planning to make it later this month. Not only are you a good blogger, but you are also a great photographer. Cheers, TNA

Dear Anonymous with Trifle Bowl, I think that by using such a deep bowl, you are going to have "floaters." This is made to make in a shallow bowl so they don't have much liquid to float. I suggest either cutting the blocks bigger to give them more mass, and/or letting the milk mixture set up a bit and then gently stir in the colored blocks (like semi-setting jello before adding fruit). Hope that helps! - mary the food librarian P.S. sorry it took me so long to answer!

Dear Jennyou are sucha inspiration!i love this jellobut have u ever used evaporated milk instead of condense i prefere condensebut my friend tried out evaporated milk and she said it was okwhat do you say?

Dear Chan (#81), I'm Mary the Food Librarian...and this recipe was adapted from JustJenn, my friend. Sorry for any confusion. I've never made it with evaporated milk. However, since Condensed milk is sweetened and evaporated milk is not...you will need to add sugar to the milk mixture. I don't know how much to add, but I would make sure it dissolves completely. I hope this helps. - mary the food librarian

Dear Daisy (#86), One envelope is 1/4 ounce. According to David Lebovitz, "One envelope of powdered gelatin (about 1/4 ounce) is about 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 teaspoon." Here is his post about gelatin: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2009/04/how_to_use_gelatin.html

Dear Anonymous #90, As I mentioned in comment #83 (I understand if you didn't see it...this post has a lot of comments!! :), I've never tried this recipe with evaporated milk. I would think one should add sugar, but if you think it tastes good, then try it! Thanks for stopping by - mary the food librarian

Hi, my name is Ferreira, ím from Brazil.My mom made that for me all my childhood, and I now do the same to my kids.I did not know there was a recipe with that name, "Broken Glass Jello".I´m just amazed!!I´ve posted my mom´s recipe on my blog, it is a little bit different from yours.It is in portuguese, my home language, but my blog got translation capabilities.If you want to see mine, it´s posted athttp://blogaindasemnome.blogspot.com/2009/11/gelatina.html

I made these for a 4th of July party we had at work and it was s big hit! Many of my co-workers asked me for the recipe so that they can make it for their kids. I am making another batch right now. Thanks for the wonderful recipe! Oh I used two packs of small red jello and two packs of blue. Perfect for a July 4th gathering.

To #106, #107 Anonymous: I've never made it with soy milk. Since sweetened condensed milk is MUCH thicker than soy milk, you would need to add more gelatin to make it work, as well as sugar (since the condensed milk is sweetened). If you skip the milk layer altogether, then the colors will not be distinct. Good luck - mary the food librarian

I grew up with this as a kid. It was slightly different, the white stuff was made with Dream Whip (a powdered Cool Whip-like mix), cream and lemon jello- all whipped to a frothy, creamy consistency. We also called it "Broken Glass Jello" but the Jello recipe book called it "Stained Glass Jello". It is a New Year's Day tradition that makes an appearance about every 3 or 4 years. This year it will be your version...thanks.

Mary, the Aeroplane brand jelly sachet(also 30z) of mine here says to add a cup of boiling water followed by a cup of cold water. Do I follow them or just stick to 1 cup boiling water??? These are meant to be a lot firmer aren't they?

Robert, I'm sorry. I haven't used that brand so this answer may not be correct. But on my 3 oz box of Jello, it says it should have two cups total water (1 cup boiling, 1 cup cold). However, because I want FIRM jello to cut into the blocks, we only use the 1 cup of boiling water. So, whatever is "half" the water is probably the best bet. Good luck, mary

I made this today and man it is amazing! Thank you for this wonderful recipe.However, the 3 oz blueberry jello package seems to be a lot heavier than the others'. I just wonder why that is. I made it with half the package and the jello wasn't firm enough, so when I cut it, the blocks kinda fell apart :(. The end result didn't look as good as yours, but it was still SO YUMMY!I'll be making this again so soon!

I stopped by from another site for the broken glass jello and WOW I can not believe all the great goodies you have!! I am going to have to try some of these, the question is where to start! I am a new follower now and sooooo looking forward to new things to try this year. Thank you!

Made this twice already for my daughter's class. The first time, I just poured the condensed milk mixture over the colored cubes and let it set up. Second time, after pouring the milk mixture, I gently moved the colored cubes around with a rubber spatula which distributed more of the milk mixture at the bottom. Although both batches were equally great in taste, presentation was better second time around. Enjoy!

I have made Finger Jello for my Family for years. I would love to have these new recipes for a new variety, but it will not let me print them. How can I get these recipes? Thank you, Sally Marez e-mail sally_salmarez2ms@yahoo.com

I made stained glass jello tonight with red, blue, and yellow for the Pacquiao fight tonight. It turned out great and everyone loved it. But how can I keep it from sticking to my glass pan? Please help. Thanks!

@Anonymous You can either spray the pan with Pam or other non-stick oily spray, or you can rub the pan with a flavorless oil such as Canola oil. In both cases, take a paper towel and wipe out most of the oil or spray...leaving a really light film in the pan. I usually don't spray but use a small overset spatula to help me lift out the jello pieces. - mary

slight twist:we use 1 can of evaporated milk, 2 cans of cream (nestle), 1 can of condensed milk and 3 envelopes of knox and mix this with the colorful jello blocks. always a star and delicious and light

I am married to a Mexican fellow, and have many Mexican friends, they call it gelatina mosiaca, or mosaic gelatine, and they use their own Mexican brands of gelatine which are found in the Mexican stores, hence the less vibrant colors (and flavors if you ask me!) The white part is a (usually) vanilla flavored gelatine mix that they combine with milk instead of water.

Just made a batch of this for my daughter's 1st birthday... haven't 'tasted' it yet, but it's jello, so I'm sure it'll taste like well, jello. It was SO easy and it's going to be really festive on the dessert table we're doing. Thanks for the easy instructions!

Hi there, I am so thrilled to have found this :DI just have one question (quite an important one I should imagine)..I need to know the size or weight of the gelatine product (envelopes) that you refer to...I am in South Africa and our products will be somewhat different...so if you can tell me the weight or volume of the gelatine per envelope I will really appreciate it. Thank you so much :)

@AnneTagonist According to David Lebovitz's blog post about gelatin, one envelope of Knox unflavored gelatin is: "One envelope of powdered gelatin (about 1/4 ounce) is about 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 teaspoons" Here is his post: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2009/04/how-to-use-gelatin/

I'm SO doing this for DD's rainbow 1st bday party. I'm hoping I can do 2 oz of six colors in 2/3 boiling water & it'll come out the same w/ more colors...or just do it all w/ add'l EB milk & knox and use another, smaller pan.

@Anonymous To #140, You can speed up the "cooling" by using refrigerated condensed milk. When you put the 4 colors in the refrig, place the can of milk in the refrig too. That'll cool down the mixture faster. If you aren't using a cold can of milk, you can leave the milky mixture out for about an hour. - mary

@Anonymous To #142. For the colored squares, you only use 1 cup of water (not two cups). You do not follow the directions on the box because you want a more "solid/firm" jello that can be cut into square and hold up. (Jell-O has "Jigglers" that are "finger jello" and they use half the water.)

However, if you already have the jello in the refrig, then you might still try it...It will take longer to chill (overnight is best) and it won't be as "firm" as the 1 cup liquid squares. You'll also twice as much...since you doubled the liquid volume. If you want to go forward, you shouldn't use all the Jello squares (see how filled the 9 x 13 pan is and don't overcrowd). And, the squares might not cut up very nicely. But Good luck! Jello is pretty resilient so I hope things work out (I've never done it this way so I don't know how it will be) - mary

@Anonymous #144 - Gelatin blooms when it about doubles in volume after mixed with cold water. This blog post has a photo of the powdered gelatin mixed with water. Let it sit for a few minutes until the volume increases. http://www.foodlibrarian.com/2011/08/7-layer-finger-jello.html

@Anonymous #145 - Reader #142 says they followed the instructions on the box of colored Jello and used 2 cups of liquid for the one 3 oz box of Jello. My recipe says to use only 1 cup of water with the 3 oz box of colored Jello. Because #142 used two cups of liquid instead of one cup, they had double the volume of liquid.

I adapted your recipe to use with a brain-shaped mold for a teen zombie party at my library! We had a zombie brain eating contest where the kids couldn't use their hands. I used a mixture of bulk flavored gelatin, unflavored gelatin and sweetened condensed milk and they turned out mottled pink and red and disgusting-looking! You can see pictures at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Banning-Library-District/230539196962304

Thanks for the recipe and easy to follow instructions! I've always wanted to make this but never tried because I thought it was too difficult. Now seeing how easy you made it sound I think I will make it very soon!!!

@Anonymous Dear Anonymous #153 - Your aunt may have made a version of broken glass jello that used whipped cream instead of the sweetened condensed milk. See this post by my friend JustJenn: http://justjennrecipes.com/broken-glass-jell-o-pie-for-the-4th-of-july/2011/06/30/

@Anonymous Re: #155: I'm not sure...The jello is liquid so it wouldn't work to pour it directly in the crust, but I'm not sure how long you could keep it outside the crust before moving it into the crust. I've never messed with the Jello once it is made, and setting up. Good luck.

@Anonymous Dear #158, Unfortunately, I don't have easy access to those tupperware bins anymore...but I'd say they were around 6 x 6. They would comfortably fit a peanut butter sandwich. They are about the size of those Ziploc semi-disposable blue and clear plastic containers (know what I mean, you can find them in packs of 6 at Target)? Hope this helps and isn't more confusing... :) - mary

I was trying to make a rainbow layered cake pan mold the other night when I realized it was not going to work. :-( But I then remembered seeing this awesome post and was inpired to make it work! Thanks for the great idea! http://happywordsandthings.blogspot.com/2013/02/r2d2-jello-madness-stained-glass-jello.html

This recipe has been around for more than 50 years and was known as stained glass jello. It can also be layered with rainbow colors, colors to go with holidays and blue and green makes a great snack for going with an ocean or sea life unit for school.

@Anonymous #164 - I've never used sugar free gelatin but I think you can since it pretty much sets up the same (from what I can tell from viewing photos of sugar free gelatin). However, you need sweetened condensed milk and I've never seen a sugar free version of that. - mary

My mom made this every Christmas and I always looked forward to it. I believe she used Dream Whip instead of the condensed milk and there was a graham cracker crust. It makes an impressive presentation.

To the person wondering about sugar-free version...yes, by all means!! For some reason I had a zillion plain knox gelatin boxes in the cupboard but no flavoured jello...The solution-I mixed a packet of crystal light with a packet of plain gelatin and the one cup of water. The colours weren't as vibrant as with store bought jello but they tasted fine and set up firmly.Mine turned out with softer, pastel hues this way--very eastery!